In the traditional teaching mode, it is difficult for teachers to have a comprehensive understanding of each student's study, and it is also hard for them to provide targeted guidance and assistance. With the development of data collection and analysis technology, schools and educational institutions can make better use of big data technology to…

Machine learning models were constructed to predict student performance in an introductory mechanics class at a large land-grant university in the United States using data from 2061 students. Students were classified as either being at risk of failing the course (earning a D or F) or not at risk (earning an A, B, or C). The models focused on…

Online homework (OLH) assignments were added to the Introduction to Physical Geology class at Dickinson State University in the fall semester of 2014. Anticipated advantages included timely feedback and opportunities for students to correct mistakes made during homework completion. The same instructor taught all lecture and laboratory sections…

The flipped classroom has the potential to improve student performance. Because flipping involves both preclass preparation and problem solving in the classroom, the means by which increased learning occurs and whether the method of delivering content matters is of interest. In a partially flipped cell biology course, students were assigned online…

Prediction of student performance is one of the most important subjects of educational data mining. Artificial neural networks are seen to be an effective tool in predicting student performance in e-learning environments. In the studies carried out with artificial neural networks, performance predictions based on student scores are generally made,…

Purpose: This study aims to determine how university students evaluate the academic enablers they have acquired. To this end, the Assessment Scale of the Academic Enablers (ASAE) was developed and applied to 5,208 university students to test its validity and reliability. Research Methods: The study employed a quantitative research design during…

We compute nodal centrality measures on the collaboration networks of students enrolled in three upper-division physics courses, usually taken sequentially, at the Colorado School of Mines. These are complex networks in which links between students indicate assistance with homework. The courses included in the study are intermediate classical…

Flipped instruction shifts the burden for engaging course content to the students. Moving these activities outside the classroom creates motivational challenges. This study investigates the role of formative assessments and completion rewards. Definitions are provided for flipped instruction and formative assessments. A classification of reward…

Providing students with one-on-one interaction with instructors is a big challenge in large courses. One solution is to have students interact with their peers during class. Reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) is a more involved interaction that requires peers to alternate the roles of "teacher" and "student." Theoretically,…

Many studies have argued the negative effects of external rewards on internal motivation while others assert that external motivation does not necessarily undermine intrinsic motivation. At a private university, students were given the option to earn bonus points for achieving mastery in the online homework systems associated with Statistics and…

This study assessed the impact of flipped instruction on study effort, exam performance, motivation, and perceived class quality in two sections of an introductory chemistry course. Giving frequent assignments and quizzes provided enough incentive to ensure pre-class study compliance, and flipped instruction did not appreciably increase overall…

The Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the legality of racial preferences, in part thanks to a lawsuit against Harvard College alleging that the school discriminates against Asian-Americans. Proving discrimination at a specific school is an arduous task, requiring access to private, detailed admissions records--as the legal documents in that…

We present a comment on "Benefits of completing homework for students with different aptitudes in an introductory electricity and magnetism course", by F. J. Kontur, K. de La Harpe, and N. B. Terry PRST-PER 11, 010105 (2015). Our data show that the conclusions Kontur and coworkers draw from their data may not be generally applicable.

Pearson sought to explore whether the use of Mastering Physics, an online tutorial system used in higher education introductory physics courses, is related to students' results in exams and external standardized tests. This Research Report presents findings from two research studies we conducted with Penn State University, a school known for…

This article investigates the relative effectiveness of online and paper-based formative assessment in the learning of English as a second language. For this study, 74 Japanese university second language (L2) students took online quizzes, while 71 were given paper-based quizzes to complete. The quiz content was drawn from learning material found…